Webmaster Tools

Earlier in the month, we interviewed candidates for our web admin position. One of the questions we asked was, What tools do you use to develop and maintain websites? Usually the answer is "Dreamweaver" or some other editing tool such as Textpad, etc.

However, no one has mentioned the Firefox plugins, and I wonder why? Jessamyn West gave a great workshop on Firefox developer's tools addons at CIL2007. Firebug and Web Developer are two of the addons I use.

Our SLIS intern, Adam Vorobok, presented on open source web tools for our 2008 Webmasters Exchange. You can view the slides here.

We did have one or two candidates mention Gimp, the GNU image manipulation program.

Free Web Version of Photoshop Launches - EarthLink - Technology News

Use this very light-weight version of Photoshop to edit photos. Some of the features are much easier to work with than those available in other photo editors. You can also upload photos and store them with this free account.

But, if you want a full-bodied editor, without the price tag, I'd go with Gimp.

The Ultimate Cubicle Prank

Goodbye to Tao

The State Library's web administrator, Tao Gao, has decided to focus his full attention on his own marketing and web development company, Live2Create.com. Yesterday was his last day.

Our website content, however, will remain fresh-- thanks in large part to the use of a content management system, in this case, Joomla! While the administration falls on my shoulders until a new web administrator is hired, the staff can update content on most of the website with little intervention from me. In these busy times, that is very good news indeed.

Libraries in South Carolina use a variety of Internet applications for their websites. Greenville County Library System is now using Joomla! Georgetown County Library uses a wiki. Lee County Public Library uses a blog.

The key demand continues to be fresh, dynamic content. That will remain the challenge-- no matter what solution you use.

So long, Tao! Best of luck for your new venture; we'll miss you.

Libraries & Life: iLibrarian » Track Building Visitors by their Cell Phones

Here's an interesting concept: a pedestrian path measurement technology which automatically monitors the path visitors take within a building from their cell phone signals. Bet they don't ask visitors to turn off their phones!

Tools to make work easier

I found two neat apps recently, as I plowed through a very high stack of professional reading. (Never enough time, it seems.)

The first checks your computer for the latest updates on many of the apps we all use: of course, the operating system and office suite, but also Adobe Reader, iTunes, Java JRE, Firefox, Quicktime, WinZip, Flash... There's nothing to install; it all runs from their website. The free product is the Secunia Software Inspector.

The other app is PDFTools, another piece of freeware. It can encrypt, decrypt, join, split, stamp, create and rearrange a PDF file.

SCLA 2007 Conference

I blogged the SCLA 2007 Conference here. While the conference focused on Library 2.0, there were "higher level" tech offerings for the techies. Of note were the sessions on Evergreen in Georgia, and the SLIS presentation on skills for librarians in 2020.